November 05, 2017

The Golden House - Salman Rushdie


Random House, September 5, 2017.

 

Four Stars


 

Nero Golden is a powerful real estate tycoon who relocates to New York under mysterious circumstances, shortly after Obama’s inauguration. He arrives with his three adult sons, who all have issues of their own. The four Golden men take new identities with classical Roman names – Petronius, Lucius Apuleius, Dionysius – and enter into the high society of the rich and famous in downtown Manhattan.

 

Narrated by the Goldens' neighbor and family friend Rene, an aspiring filmmaker, Nero and his sons seem like the perfect subject for documentation. Rene chronicles their rise to power in New York society, their tragic ups and downs, and their eventual fall from power. The Goldens face conflicts involving money, women and the betrayal that takes place between siblings – all of it leading to an impending sense of danger.

 

The novel covers all the relevant plot points of American politics in the past eight years, starting with the new era of the American dream following Obama’s inauguration and ending with the ascendancy of an ambitious, media-savvy villain who aspires to become the 45th president – which should sound familiar to most of us. In our current political climate of “alternative truths”, The Golden House is a timely novel of identity, truth and lies – both personal and political.

 

This novel is classic Rushdie in both plot and style – it takes heavy themes and carries them lightly. It is a serious, literary, political novel while remaining highly readable. The references to The Great Gatsby emphasize the glittering New York setting – it is tragic, gaudy and clever. In fact, my main complaint is that it is sometimes overly clever, as only Rushdie can be.

 

The world of the Goldens is a post-modern, post-truth America with a focus on identity – hidden or otherwise. The unreliable narrator emphasizes this fact, and the fact that the many narrators of our current political situation are unreliable as well. Rushdie’s own opinions about the cartoony villain leading the country are clear, and leave no doubt about who he is referencing. This is a lengthy novel packed with pop culture and political information, and yet it is a fast paced and enjoyable read, and a clever guide to America today.

 

I received this book from Random House and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

October 29, 2017

The History of Bees - Maja Lunde


Simon & Schuster, August 22, 2017.


Four Stars



The History of Bees is an ambitious cautionary tale about Colony Collapse Disorder – bees all over the world are disappearing without explanation, and without pollination, our food sources will disappear with them. This isn’t exactly a dystopia, since it is already happening today, and the world described here is a likely outcome if we don’t protect our bees from pesticides and other invasive modern farming methods. This is one of the most relevant and quietly terrifying environmental disasters of our time, and it is described here with an emphasis on the personal repercussions of the collapse – if we don’t fix it now, it is our children who will suffer.


The novel is told in three parts, looking at the past, present and future. In Hertfordshire, England in 1852, William is a biologist who has failed professionally and given up on life and ambition. He takes to his bed, leaving his family with no source of income, until he is inspired by his daughter to design and build a new type of beehive. It is built so that the layers can be removed and studied without damaging the colony, and he thinks his study of bees will result in fame and fortune for his family.


Years later, in 2007, George is a beekeeper in rural Ohio. He shuns modern farming advances, and still builds his own hives using the design that has been passed down through generations of his family. As George watches how powerful pesticides are destroying neighbouring bee colonies, he learns about the newly named Colony Collapse Disorder, in which beekeepers open up their hives in the spring and the bees are just gone with no explanation. George hopes for the best, and expects that his son will take over the family business – but Tom is more interested in his university writing classes.


In Sichuan, China in the year 2098, we see the full repercussions of the loss of the bees. Tao is one of many people who does the hard labour of hand-painting pollen onto fruit trees, to preserve the crops that cannot live without the bees. The government controls every aspect of peoples’ lives, they barely make a living wage, and have almost no free time to try to improve their lives. Tao wants more for her son Wei-Wen, but her decision to spend a day in the fields teaching him simple math ends in tragedy. Wei-Wen is taken by government authorities, and Tao makes the dangerous journey to Beijing in order to find out the truth about Wei-Wen’s accident.


The History of Bees is a haunting story because it is already happening in our world – this isn’t some distant future issue, but one that is affecting us today. However, this is not only an examination of environmental disaster – it is also about the powerful bond between parents and their children. It’s thought-provoking in this context, because while we will do anything for our immediate children, we are less concerned about destroying the planet for generations to come.


I wish the storylines had come together sooner, because the ways that the three plots echo each other aren’t clear until the end. The pacing is often slow, especially in some of the technical explanations of beehives, and of the events that led to Tao’s world. However, it is definitely worth reading when it all comes together and we see how William, George and Tao are connected. This is a wake-up call about the bee epidemic that is told without being pedantic – and ultimately it is hopeful that this crisis can be reversed if we start thinking now about the future.


I received this book from Simon & Schuster and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

October 22, 2017

Manhattan Beach - Jennifer Egan


Scribner, October 3, 2017.

 

Four Stars


 

Anna Kerrigan is twelve years old, living in Brooklyn with her family during the Great Depression. Her father’s job description is unclear to her, but his union connections bring him into contact with people from all walks of life, including the world of organized crime. When Anna accompanies him to one of these meetings, she is introduced to Dexter Styles, a powerful man who controls her father in ways she doesn’t understand. Visiting Dexter’s beachfront mansion makes a strong impression on Anna that will last into adulthood.

 

Several years later, Anna’s father has disappeared – presumably he has walked out on the family that he was unable to support financially. Working at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, Anna is now responsible for her former showgirl mother and her disabled sister who suffers from a debilitating and progressive disease. The country is at war, which is why Anna has the opportunity to work at a traditionally male job – she works on small-scale machinery, but dreams of become the first female diver, repairing ships underwater.

 

Anna has been drawn to the water ever since that day at Dexter’s beach house, so when she gets her chance to dive, she finally feels whole. And when she runs into Dexter at a night club shortly after, it seems like fate. He doesn’t recognize Anna, and she doesn’t give her last name, but they do forge an immediate connection. Anna convinces Dexter to help with her sister, who is still alive but not truly living – together they take her to the beach, which seems to make her better. But when tragedy strikes, Anna and Dexter turn to each other in a romantic relationship that is as intimate as it is dangerous. Secrets emerge about Dexter’s work, including a possible connection to Anna’s father’s disappearance.

 

Manhattan Beach has all the energy and passion of Egan’s earlier novels, but it is also saturated with historical detail about life in New York City during the Depression and World War II years, including a view through the cracks in the world of organized crime. The situational details are mostly interesting, but sometimes became long-winded and dry. I much preferred the intimate portrait of Anna as a young girl, growing into an independent and powerful woman, taking on new roles within her family and out in the wider world.

 

Anna learns to stand up for herself and make life-changing decisions – she discovers what to hold onto and when to let go. Although many of the characters in the novel are one-dimensional, Anna is fully formed and makes the entire novel worth reading. These are transformative years for New York City, for America, and for the world as a whole – and we witness it unfold through the transformation of one girl, Anna, as she expands the definition of what a woman is capable of becoming.

 

I received this book from Scribner and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

October 15, 2017

The Red-Haired Woman - Orhan Pamuk

Penguin Random House Canada, August 22, 2017.

 

Four Stars


 

Ten years ago, I read Snow – my first book by Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk – and absolutely loved it. I haven’t been as impressed with Pamuk’s more recent work, although I’m not sure if it’s the slower pace, weighed down by symbolism and archetypical characters, or if my expectations are too high after my experience with Snow.

 

The Red-Haired Woman is heavily influenced by both western and eastern legends, specifically Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and the Persian story of Rostam and Sohrab. Although these stories provide complex layers to the novel, they also sometimes make the characters feel less real and more like symbols for the themes that Pamuk is exploring here – the relationships between fathers and sons, the idea of individual freedom versus the government, and ultimately the gray areas between good and evil. It’s a lot to take on, and it explains why the story sometimes becomes dry and unable to hold the reader’s attention.

 

The novel is set in Istanbul in the 1980s. Cem is sixteen years old, and he spends his summer as the apprentice to a well-digger, Master Mahmut, in a small town outside the city. As they desperately search for water in the barren land surrounding them, they tell stories at night to pass the time, including the legends mentioned above, which both man and boy become fixated upon. Oedipus Rex, the story of a king who kills his father and marries his mother, specifically becomes a loose allegory for Cem’s larger lifelong struggles.

 

After a day of digging wells, Cem goes into town to visit the tent of some travelling performers who act out “morality tales” for the crowd. When Cem meets the older, married, red-haired woman who performs in the plays, he becomes obsessed and follows her around town. To Cem’s surprise, the two experience one night of passion together, before an accident at work causes Cem to flee back to Istanbul. His experiences that summer weigh him down with a sense of guilt and shame that follows him into adulthood.

 

Thirty years later, Cem and his wife have the opportunity to purchase the land where he dug the well that summer. When Cem travels back to the small town, he discovers that his past has not stayed buried as he expected – and the red-haired woman has a surprising secret for him. The mystery elements tie the novel together from start to finish, although the big reveal is certainly not surprising. The Red-Haired Woman is much more concerned with its multi-layered plot, rich in literary and historical references, than in developing the mystery or the characters themselves. Although the novel didn’t always hold my attention, I did appreciate the complex layers of story and history – and I think it will only get better with each re-read.

 

I received this book from Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

October 12, 2017

We All Love the Beautiful Girls - Joanne Proulx


Penguin Random House Canada, August 22, 2017.



Five Stars



Mia and Michael Slate and their son Finn are a healthy, happy and prosperous family. They co-own a successful company, giving Mia time to pursue her passion as a photographer, and they live in a beautiful home in which they want for nothing. However, their perfect lives are shattered one night when they receive an unexpected visit from their accountant – he interrupts their cozy evening to tell them that their best friend and business partner has been embezzling from them for years, leaving them financially destitute.


Mia, a former corporate banker, cannot believe that Michael did not realize what was happening. She goes to bed angry, leaving her husband to wait up for their teenage son Finn. Hours past curfew, Michael starts to worry, and he heads out into their small town to search for his son. Eventually, he tracks Finn to a party at his wealthy best friend’s property, where he discovers Finn passed out in a snowbank after drinking too much. His tragic mistake has devastating consequences that echo through the whole family.


Finn survives the night, but loses his hand to frostbite, and everyone copes differently with the loss. Finn begins a clandestine relationship with his former babysitter Jess, who happens to be dating Finn’s best friend’s older brother. Mia and Michael lose the tenderness of their decades long marriage – instead of communicating, they retreat into rough sex and silence. Mia enters into a dangerous flirtation with a former colleague, and Michael begins to spend his time at an abandoned baseball diamond, playing catch with a scruffy street kid who replaces his damaged relationship with his son.


The Slate family slowly unravels throughout the novel, as they struggle with money and intimacy. All three characters take turns narrating the story, as they all get closer to the edge of betrayal, revenge and violence. The novel is written with honest and clear emotion, reaching deep into the compassionate terrain of marriage, parenting and what it means to be a family. The characters are solid and well-defined, populating a touching and emotional world without becoming saccharine or melodramatic.


We All Love the Beautiful Girls explores how the choices we make can affect everyone around us, and how people show their true colours in the face of tragedy. While I enjoyed the Canadian content of the novel (it’s set in Quebec), its themes have global reach, especially regarding the normalization of violence – specifically towards women – in our current socio-political climate. I didn’t know much about this book when I started it, and I think that’s the best way to read it – it started out slow, and therefore it was surprising yet appropriate when the story became increasingly savage and raw. These characters express real heartache, and with narrators that cross gender and age boundaries, I think this novel could speak to a wide audience as we struggle with how to connect to each other in the world we now live in.


I received this book from Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

October 09, 2017

The Other Girl - Erica Spindler


St. Martin’s Press, August 22, 2017.

 

Four Stars


 

When she was fifteen, Randi Rader was kidnapped by a stranger who picked her up hitchhiking – she escaped before too much damage was done, but she was forced to leave another girl behind with the kidnapper. When she went to the police for help, however, no one believed her story. Randi had a troubled family life and several run-ins with the law, and she still carries the guilt that because of her past, she will never know what happened to the other girl that night.

 

Now an adult, Officer Miranda Rader works for the police department in a neighbouring town in Louisiana. Despite her negative experience with the police in the past, Miranda has vowed to use her sense of honesty and integrity to protect innocent victims like she once was. Her current chief of police was the only officer that believed her that night, and she trusts him completely. So when he calls her to a crime scene in the middle of the night, Miranda follows unquestioningly.

 

The crime scene turns out to be the ritualistic murder of a well-liked local college professor with strong family ties to the community. Because of the way he was found, Miranda immediately realizes that the killer was intimate with the victim. She searches the house for clues, but doesn’t find anything leading to the killer – instead, she finds a newspaper clipping about her own childhood kidnapping. When Miranda’s fingerprints are later found at the scene, she realizes that someone is trying to frame her for the murder – but she has no idea how she’s connected to the victim.

 

Miranda soon becomes the prime suspect of another murder – the death of the police chief who failed to believe her kidnapping story on that night. Her current chief and friend is forced to suspend her from duty, although his motives are becoming unclear – is he protecting Miranda, or himself? Meanwhile, Miranda begins a romantic relationship with her partner Jake, who seems to support her innocence, although there is no one she can completely trust. Even her best friend becomes a suspect, and Miranda must question the motivations of everyone around her.

 

This is a thriller, filled with twisty suspense and edgy excitement. While the characters could have more depth, they are surprising in many ways and often slip out of their stereotypical roles. It wasn’t difficult to guess what was coming at the end, but it was still a completely entertaining read. Miranda is able to trust her own instincts in order to survive the final showdown with the killer, and with her own past. While this is a typical thriller in many ways, the interesting characters and their individual choices made this a satisfying summer read.

 

I received this book from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

October 01, 2017

The Atlas of Forgotten Places - Jenny D. Williams

Thomas Dunne Books, July 11, 2017.



Five Stars



The Atlas of Forgotten Places is a surprising, incredible novel that really has it all – a thrilling, adventurous narrative, strong and powerful characters, and a plot entwining historical, political and current events. Most of all, it is an exploration of family, friendship, and the lengths we will go to protect our loved ones –  and how that love unites us across borders.


The novel is narrated by two very different women, brought together in their search for the people they love – especially when they learn that those two people may have gone missing together. Sabine Hardt was an aid worker in Africa for many years, until a tragic event made her doubt her ability to make a difference in the world. She retreated to a quiet life in her native Germany, watching from a distance as her American niece Lily takes her place in Uganda. Envisioning a future of helping people, Lily is wide-eyed and optimistic in her emails to her aunt – until she suddenly disappears on her way home to America. Sabine makes the inevitable trip to Uganda to search for Lily, bringing back surprising memories of her past.


While tracking Lily’s movements, Sabine meets Rose Akulu, a young Ugandan woman working with the American aid workers, offering support to the victims of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. Rose herself was kidnapped by the LRA as a child – she eventually escaped, under circumstances that are slowly revealed, and returned to her village with haunting memories and a missing arm. Members of the LRA who return home are shunned by their former friends and family, and Rose was only able to find solace in her boyfriend Ocen, whose brother was also taken by the LRA. Now Ocen has disappeared too, and the evidence suggests that he may be with Lily.


Sabine and Rose do not completely trust each other, but with the help of relief worker and mutual friend Christoph, the two women are willing to sacrifice everything to find Lily and Ocen. As an American girl, Lily’s disappearance is publicized by the western media – meanwhile, Rose worries that Ocen will be collateral damage in the search for Lily. Williams does an impressive job of creating complicated, emotionally-charged characters who realistically reflect the situation in Uganda – white aid workers are attempting to do good, helping people during a time of civil war, but their role in Africa becomes an echo of the colonialism that caused these issues in the first place.


Williams has obviously spent time in Uganda, and the setting comes alive in a real and assured way. The novel is written in clean, straightforward prose that clearly reflects the complex political situation in Uganda – there is no awkwardly inserted exposition about the war, but instead it is explained as it is relevant to the scenes and characters. There are also no simple explanations of good vs. evil here – when children are kidnapped and forced to kill, and then ostracized by their families when they return, we are forced to witness the true extent of human cruelty. And there is no escape into fiction, as this novel is based on real-world, current events that we cannot look away from.


Sabine and Rose each have distinct voices and perspectives on the situation around them – neither one is particularly likeable, and yet as their backstories are revealed, both are sympathetic and real. Although these women come from extremely different circumstances, they are more similar than they realize. And while the ending of the novel is sudden and unresolved, it is certainly hopeful – it leaves room for many possible outcomes, including the hope for a future in which we can be united across borders to prevent child soldiers and the men who create them. Most of all, there is hope for people like Rose, whose childhood was taken from her, and yet she emerged from the jungle willing to help others discover a better way of life.


I received this book from Thomas Dunne Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

September 24, 2017

Girl in Snow - Danya Kukafka


Simon & Schuster, August 1, 2017.

 

 Four Stars


 

On a frozen, snow-covered morning, the body of popular high school student Lucinda Hayes is found in a local park. In the small Colorado neighbourhood, everyone knew Lucinda – and everyone is affected by her death, whether they liked her or not.

 

Girl in Snow is narrated by three characters with connections to Lucinda. Cameron is an anxious, unpopular boy who was obsessed with Lucinda – he drew detailed portraits of her and watched her through her bedroom window at night. Jade is an edgy girl with an alternative style, whose alcoholic mom and miserable home life make her jealous of Lucinda’s seemingly perfect world – she also admittedly hated Lucinda for stealing her babysitting job. Finally, Russ is the officer in charge of investigating Lucinda’s murder, and he also has a strong connection to the family of his main suspect, Cameron.

 

Each character works to expose the others’ secrets while confronting their own emotions as they all search for the truth about Lucinda’s death. The novel explores how people can see us and interpret our lives in different ways, while never knowing the truth about who we are – not just Lucinda, but all of the characters are judged by who they appear to be. Cameron expresses himself through his artwork, while Jade’s sections often shift into her dramatic screenplay in which she envisions the scenes that she wishes had taken place, and the conversations that sounded better in her mind.

 

Lucinda could have been killed by anyone in her small suburb, but as more backstory is revealed through the eyes of different narrators, the identity of the murderer becomes inevitable. This novel is ostensibly a mystery-thriller, but the focus is ultimately on character development. The only exception is Lucinda, who remains fairly flat, but she acts as a device to bring everyone else together. The story is written in clear, concise prose, yet it is saturated with depth and emotion – Kukafka’s words are evocative without being overly descriptive. As the characters become increasingly intertwined, they show the unknown connections between all of us – and how appearances can be deceiving.

 

I received this book from Simon & Schuster and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

September 20, 2017

The Only Cafe - Linden MacIntyre


Random House Canada, August 8, 2017.

 

Four Stars


 

Cyril Cormier grew up in Toronto with a Lebanese refugee father and a mother from Cape Breton. They divorced when Cyril was young, and he didn’t see much of his father Pierre, who was a successful corporate lawyer with a new, younger wife and infant son. During an international scandal at the mining company where he worked, Pierre went missing under suspicious circumstances – there was an explosion on the boat he was living on, and his body was never found.

 

Five years after Pierre disappeared, one of his bones is found and he is finally declared dead. When the will is read, Cyril and the rest of the family discover that Pierre included an unusual request – instead of a traditional funeral, he asked for a “roast” to take place at a bar in Toronto’s east end called The Only Café. There is also a mysterious name on the guest list, “Ari”, that none of the family had ever heard Pierre mention.

 

At the time his father is declared dead, Cyril is interning at a national newsroom (likely modelled after the CBC) that is working on a documentary about homegrown terrorism. When Cyril’s Lebanese background is discovered by his bosses, they ask him to bring a personal perspective to the war on terror. Cyril decides to investigate the events that led to his father’s death, and the first step is meeting with the mysterious Ari. Cyril discovers that Ari was an Israeli soldier who met Pierre in Lebanon in the 1980s, during the Lebanese civil war.

 

Cyril suspects that Ari can answer questions not only about Pierre’s past but also about whether his father is truly dead. Soon Cyril’s personal investigation intersects with the larger story of terrorism at the newsroom, and there are surprising connections to his friends and colleagues. The deception stretches from the present day back to the Lebanese massacres of September 1982, and the plot is grounded in these historical events, bringing the current political climate in the Middle East into sharp focus.

 

The Only Café is a slow-paced mystery with both historical and contemporary relevance. It demonstrates how history is constantly repeating – with different forms of terrorism always in the background and bubbling up to the surface over time – and it puts a personal spin on the stories we often hear from a distance. There is plenty of dialogue to keep the story moving forward, although there perhaps could have been more inner contemplation and character development. There are constantly shifting perspectives, which were sometimes confusing and overly complex – there are only so many health, family and work dramas that one person can go through, and they really didn’t add that much to the story. But despite my issues with the novel, the writing was powerful enough to continually draw me back in to this complex and timely story of family secrets and their effects on global events.

 

I received this book from Random House Canada and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

September 17, 2017

Emma in the Night - Wendy Walker

St. Martin’s Press, August 8, 2017.

 

Five Stars

 

Emma in the Night is Walker’s second novel after 2016’s All is Not Forgotten, and while the two books share much in style and substance, I found this one more compelling and enjoyable. Three years ago, the Tanner sisters – 17-year-old Emma and 15-year-old Cassandra – went missing with no explanation. The circumstances were suspicious – Emma’s car was found abandoned in a parking lot near the beach, and her shoes abandoned by the shore. There was no evidence that Cass was with her, and yet she is gone too.

 

Now, three years later, Cass shows up on her mother’s doorstep – without Emma. She tells an incredible tale about kidnapping and captivity on an isolated island which cannot be located, and a daring and dangerous plan for escape. Forensic psychiatrist Abigail Winter worked on the Tanner sisters’ case years before, and she always felt that there was some obvious clue that she was missing. Now, hearing Cass’s story and watching her interactions with her mother, she suspects that the reason for the girls’ disappearance is close to home. With Cass’s help, Abby slowly uncovers the dysfunctional family’s secrets of narcissism and abuse.

 

The novel is told in dialogue, as Cass slowly reveals her (perhaps unreliable) story in careful moderation – she manipulates her audience much as Walker leads the reader on this fascinating journey. The structure of this novel is much like Walker’s first novel – it is an unconventional thriller in which the story takes place after the main action has concluded. It is more like reading the case notes of a crime, delving into the obsession and mental illness that formed these characters. There is much more telling than showing, and yet it works. Cass’s story is perhaps even more compelling because we did not witness the action and therefore cannot know if anything she’s saying is true.

 

The procedural aspects of the story are not all that realistic, but it is worthwhile to suspend disbelief and trust that each piece will eventually fit together. The slow reveal is geared towards reader manipulation – to keep us guessing and successfully create suspense. I thought some of the characters could have been more complex, instead of so clearly good or evil – but Cass especially was intriguing. Her narration is detached and cold, which keeps the reader at a distance, but it works because she withholds her true feelings and motivations right up to the last scene.

 

While Emma in the Night has its flaws, Walker is a talented storyteller who manages to lead the reader without oversimplifying the story. The descriptions of mental illness are fascinating and disturbing, especially as Emma and Cass are affected by their mother’s behaviour in very different ways. Cass’s flat narration has a strong emotional undercurrent that gives depth to the novel, creating an intelligent and thoughtful mystery that crosses genres in unexpected ways.

 

I received this book from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

September 14, 2017

Shadow of the Lions - Christopher Swann


Algonquin Books, August 1, 2017.

 

Three Stars


 

Ten years ago, Matthias graduated from the prestigious Blackburne boarding school, shortly after his best friend and roommate Fritz disappeared. Matthias and Fritz had had an argument about the school’s strict honour code, after which Fritz took off into the woods and was never seen again. While a search for the young man was conducted, he was eventually declared legally dead by his family – a decision that destroyed Matthias’ relationship with Fritz’ sister.

 

Ever since Fritz disappeared, Matthias has carried the guilt for his part in their argument. Living in New York City as a successful novelist, Matthias' career has stalled and his most recent relationship has ended. He is at his lowest, feeling like a failure as a writer and as a man. He never wanted to return to Blackburne, but when he is offered a job teaching English there, it suddenly feels like a lifeline.

 

Two stone lions guard the gate of Blackburne school, and when Matthias passes under them, all his old feelings return. Once he is back on campus, he quickly gets wrapped up in an investigation into Fritz’s disappearance – meanwhile, he is pulled into faculty politics and the tragic death of a student. Matthias’ search also leads back to Fritz’s wealthy and powerful family, who may know more about the past than they let on.

 

Shadow of the Lions is a coming of age story that takes several dark and surprising turns – it shows that sometimes growing up means leaving the mysteries of the past behind. While I found the novel perhaps relied too much on the readers’ previous knowledge of life at a boys’ boarding school – which I do not have – I think the story was strong and the character development was impressive. The plot kept me mostly intrigued, although it could have been more concise, and the ending was kind of random and implausible. It wasn’t all that suspenseful or surprising, but that wasn’t really the point – it was more about Matthias’ growth through these unusual experiences. While Fritz was the boy who disappeared, the impetus of the novel is Matthias’ search for his own lost youth and ultimately for his place in the world.

 

I received this book from Algonquin Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

September 11, 2017

A Killer Harvest - Paul Cleave


Atria Books, August 1, 2017.

 

Three Stars


 

Joshua is a blind teenager who believes that his vision impairment is part of a larger family curse that also caused the deaths of his biological parents. Now the father who raised him, Detective Logan, has been killed while investigating the murder of a young woman. The only good news to come from this tragedy is that Joshua is being offered corneal implant surgery to regain his vision – he will receive the eyes of his deceased surrogate father.

 

The surgery seems to be a success, but Joshua begins to recognize people and places that he has never seen before. He sees and feels memories that may have belonged to the previous owner of his transplanted corneas – and not all of the memories seem to be coming from his father. It soon comes to light that there has been a mix up at the hospital – Joshua received one eye from Detective Logan, and one from the suspect that was killed by Logan’s partner on that same morning. The images that come to Joshua from the eye of the suspect, Simon Bower, show him the darkness that exists in his new world of sight.

 

In alternative chapters, Simon’s accomplice Vincent wants revenge for the death of his friend. Logan’s surviving friends and family become targets in his scheme, and he is getting increasingly closer to Joshua. Meanwhile, he is also involved in the case of the murdered young woman, and the disappearance of several others. Although Vincent is somewhat flat as a character, the multiple points of view work well to form a full picture of the events of the novel.

 

I found the issue of cellular memory (Joshua’s ability to “see” the memories of his eyes’ previous owners) to be very interesting, and even if it isn’t based in scientific fact, I could suspend disbelief and consider the possibilities. However, I just didn’t find the plot to be particularly thrilling or scary. It was mostly just unbelievable and not even that exciting. The characters were undeveloped and the dialogue was stilted and unrealistic. The layered plot is what kept me reading, but when all the threads came together in the end, it was disappointing. I enjoyed this novel for what it was, and I would probably read something else by Cleave, but in the end I found both the plot and the characters lacking in depth and excitement.

 

I received this book from Atria Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

September 08, 2017

See What I Have Done - Sarah Schmidt


Grove Atlantic, August 1, 2017.

 

Four Stars


 

The ax murder of Lizzie Borden’s parents is one of the most fascinating and famous historical crimes of all time. Here it is retold in the intimate tone of a domestic thriller – it is the story of a woman raised in a violent, abusive home who yearns for freedom, and the dysfunctional family that surrounds her.

 

On August 4th, 1892, the Borden house is shaken by Lizzie’s screams – she has just discovered the bloody body of her deceased father Andrew. As the police arrive and Lizzie is comforted by her sister Emma and their maid Bridget, they soon discover another body upstairs. It belongs to Lizzie’s stepmother Abby, and everyone is shocked that this respected married couple with no known enemies should be brutally murdered. From the outside, the Borden family had seemed perfect, but the reality is very different – an angry father, a cruel stepmother, and the spinster sisters Emma and Lizzie who are desperate to leave home and gain independence, at any cost.

 

Lizzie’s memories of the morning in question are scattered and unclear, and Emma tries to help her get her story straight. We revisit the crime scene through Lizzie’s troubled eyes, and her balancing act on the edge of madness adds to the unsettling tone of the novel. The events leading up to the double murder are slowly revealed by multiple narrators, including Emma, Bridget, and a mysterious stranger named Benjamin who has unusual insights into the Borden family.

 

This novel is well-structured and exciting as it exposes the secrets behind the unlikeable Borden family, and it somehow lends sympathy to Lizzie even though she isn’t particularly likeable either. All of the characters are strongly developed, not just Lizzie, which adds to the realism of the story. There is also a solid sense of setting, with sensual descriptions of the sights, smells and (especially) foods that make up the background.

 

Although Lizzie was tried for the murder of her parents, she was eventually acquitted due to lack of evidence – however, she was convicted by public opinion. See What I Have Done is a true crime story, fictionalized through dreamlike emotion and the saturation of the senses. The missing hours before the discovery of the dead bodies are handled especially well, and the emotions of the survivors are convincing, lending themselves to the haunting atmosphere of this compelling novel.

 

I received this book from Grove Atlantic and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.